My Thoughts On The X-Men Franchise

 This is basically my off script, going through the motions, discussions on X-Men and all it's variations. And how I feel about said franchise.

I personally find the X-Men Franchise as the best example of how to modernize the superhero genre into a more science fiction setting. While the X-Characters do run around in trademark uniforms it never felt like a standard superhero series when compared to the other Marvel superhero series. If I had to describe the concept of X-Men it would be; What if super powers really exist? It also wasn't afraid to deal with some of the real life issues that were going on at the time, and still are. Especially with the Mutant gene being an allegory of race and homosexuality.

What made the X-Men work was how it didn't follow the typical Black and White moral that the superhero comics would follow. There wasn't a clear cut hero or villain, unless your name is Sinister and Apoc as far as the latter go. And a few others. Each of the X-Men had their own sense of flaws that they want to overcome as well as their own inner demons they wish to fight. No wonder why Spider-Man worked so well with them. Because Peter Parker was just a regular guy with super powers. When written by writers who know how to write him.

I remember my first exposure with the franchise. It was the 90's X-Men. That was the moment I had such a huge crush on Storm and Rogue. Then, when I've read the comics, Kitty Pryde became my favorite character. But the 90's X-Men TV series were what I've considered to be the X-Comics in animated form. No X-Series on the face of the earth will mimic the greatness of that show. Eventhough there are some parts of it that are dated.

X-Men Evolution was my second favorite. It had what was the best version of Wolverine I've seen. Eventhough Jackverine is a guilty pleasure of mine. And my all time favorite episode was the debut of X-23. While I was sad that it got cancelled at least it actually got some closure.

My third favorite was the anime version of X-Men. I thought the big bad sucked but the U-Men was pretty dangerous and I felt the anime would have been an awesome series. A shame it ended on a sequel hook that never came to pass.

I have a love/hate relationship with the movies. My favorite X-Films are probably X-2, First Class, Deadpool, and The Wolverine. I'm of the minority that I thought the films handled what the X-Franchise should have been. A stand alone franchise. Because if you connect it to the MCU then it just becomes a mess.

And that is why I felt the comics are suffering. Imagine if it were a stand alone story with no status quo? We'd be seeing the three part story structure; A beginning, a middle, and an end. And I think the franchise is suffering because of the neverending narrative.